1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to delivery information systems and, in particular, to a package delivery notification system and method for reporting when a vehicle is expected to deliver a package.
2. Related Art
In providing package delivery services, a recipient of a package is not always aware when a package is being sent to the recipient. In this regard, a sender does not always inform the recipient when sending a package to the recipient via a package delivery service. Furthermore, the operator of the package delivery service usually does not provide the recipient with advanced notice of the package. Therefore, the recipient is often not aware that a package has been sent to the recipient until the package is actually delivered to the recipient.
In some situations, the sender may notify the recipient that the sender is sending a package to the recipient. However, the sender may not know or may not provide to the recipient an approximate date on which the package should arrive. Therefore, the recipient is aware that a package has been sent but is not aware of when the package should arrive.
In other situations, the sender may send a package to a recipient via a package delivery service that guarantees that the package will arrive at the premises of the recipient on a particular date. Sometimes the delivery service guarantees that the package will arrive at the recipient's premises before a particular time (e.g., before noon), as well. This information may be communicated to the recipient by the sender so that the recipient is aware of when (i.e., the date and sometimes the approximate time period) to expect the package.
However, the recipient is not usually aware of the precise time that the package will be delivered. For example, when a package is guaranteed to be delivered before noon on a particular day, the package may arrive at any time before noon (e.g., between approximately 8:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.), depending on the route and number of stops made by the delivery vehicle in delivering the package and other packages. Adding to the difficulty of estimating when a package may arrive, the route and number of stops made by the same delivery vehicle often changes from day-to-day, depending on the destinations of each of the packages delivered by the delivery vehicle.
In addition, in some cases, the delivery service may fail to meet its guarantee and may deliver the package after the specified time period. The delivery service often does not contact the recipient when the package does not arrive on time, and the recipient, therefore, is usually not aware of the failure in delivery until the specified time period has expired.
Furthermore, it is also possible for the delivery service to deliver the package before its guaranteed delivery time and/or date. For example, a package sent via a two day delivery service may actually arrive at the package's destination a day early. In such a situation, the recipient may not be available to receive the package, since the recipient may not be expecting the package until the next day. As a result, the recipient does not receive the package at the earliest possible time, and/or the package may be left unattended at the recipient's premises until discovered by the recipient.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry for providing a delivery system and method of reporting package deliveries and of more precisely notifying a recipient of when to expect delivery of a package.